covid and cost of living: a 2022 ROUNDUP

KAITLYN BEATTIE-ZARB INTERVIEWS GOODRICKE’S COST OF LIVING AMBASSADOR

THIS TERM THE University of York introduced Cost of Living Ambassadors (known as COLAs) to help highlight important information and offer student support during cost-of-living difficulties. York Vision talked with Goodricke’s COLA, 2nd year Law student Joseph Plant, about the new role, the struggles of university life, and how UoY students can reach out to their colleges’ COLA.

We started by learning a little about the role itself, and Joseph’s ambitions for it.

“Our role is essentially to act as an ambassador for the support that the University is providing, and signpost to different kinds of use of support.”

While the COLAs don’t offer specific advice, they can connect students to useful resources and specialist support, with a primary aim of connecting with their colleges and feeding back issues to the University.

“The whole idea is that students have a particular talent in connecting with other students… and having us on the ground is very important to help tailor the University’s support.”

A primary job of the COLAs is to hold drop-in sessions, something Joseph does in collaboration with other East Campus colleges, Langwith and Constantine. This session occurs each Monday 4pm to 5pm in the Clarbour Room, and provides the opportunity for students to learn more about university resources or reach out for specific support.

Another important college activity is the free food events, of which every college hosts at least two per week. From brunch to jacket potatoes, the COLAs are proud to be supporting and attending these collegiate offerings as well as general meal times. The East-based COLAs, for instance, have been attempting to attend their college’s one catered meal a week because, as Joseph highlights, “that’s where you’re gonna meet your entire college there at once.”

This college based foundation for the COLA’s was particularly important in reaching students, and for Joseph highlights the vast community blossoming on East. He noted how “it feels a lot more busy and I’ve been able to see the transformation that’s happened at the uni, particularly East Campus. It’s been really positive.”

Of course college outreach is easier said than done, with colleges often struggling to reach students living off-campus, something Joseph is keen to help combat.

“The college system and the collegiate system as a whole is structured to be very integral to York as a whole. But in practice, I think it tends to be a very much first-years, which obviously I personally would not like to be the case.”

Joseph is optimistic, pointing towards the COLA columns occurring in each college newsletter now. Going forward, they also hope to adapt their program to address such off-campus distinctions, “so we can see what’s working and see what we can do to reach more students.”

In this area, the COLA’s are attempting to cycle through a range of different topics. One week they focused specifically on food and grocery shopping, as prices rise and students struggle to plan their budgets accordingly. The next week they developed discussions around ‘Talk Money Week, a national event helping people open up conversations around money. Some specific initiatives Joseph is keen to highlight are the non-profit food shop Scoop in Wentworth, saver supermarket delivery slots, and cashbackwebsites such as TopCashback and Quidco.

Talk to your College COLA for a range of tips like these, because, as Joseph suggested, “I’ve become somewhat a connoisseur of saving as much money as possible.” Two specific sites Joseph also encouraged students access were Blackbullion, “it’s got an absolute mammoth of, say, little short informational videos, informational texts”, and the University’s Student Hub, which provides one on one support for students struggling with finances, pointing a range of discretionary offerings such as food vouchers and emergency funds.

The COLAs additionally understand the need for wider university discussions such as housing and buses, recognising the difficulties these can pose to students and helping facilitate an open dialogue between student concerns and University efforts.

Joseph noted this, “the issues that we are seeing quite a lot at the moment are things like rising food prices, difficulties obtaining affordable private rented accommodation for next year.”

On the topic of transport he highlighted a tip for students to get First Bus ticket books of 10 or 20, rather than paying full price, and advertised the upcoming Bike Doctors events where students can “book into a session and he’ll essentially service your bike in any sort of repairs that needs doing.”

And in terms of housing, Joseph highlighted that while “there is no particular technique”, there are a range of tips for student house hunting. Be aware of your rights as a tenant, don’t get yourself into dealings with unscrupulous landlords, make sure your deposits are protected by a deposit protection scheme, things like that.”

Most specifically though, Joseph is there to support Goodricke and is proud to be a voice for his college through the cost of living crisis.

“It’s difficult to kind of identify any sort of systemic problems, because every kind of year cohort tends to be a bit different. I think a lot of the problems that we are seeing across the Uni tend to be very universal.”

As these universal problems develop, your college COLAs are there to highlight support and take note of the problems.

“We can then communicate back any issues people are having, particularly with the cost of living crisis, to help tailor the support that we provide at the university.”

Cost of Living Ambassadors can be reached at their drop-in sessions or via their Colleges, with more information and tips from each ambassador available in college newsletters.